Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to build we go!

Remember when your baby was little and the wrapping paper 

and the box seemed more interesting to him or her, than the 

actual present did?

Maybe you have a cat and it loves to find a paper bag

to hide in, even more than the cat bed you bought.

That's how I view Keva planks.  They are nothing

out of the ordinary, but when the Littles get their hands

on them, the most amazing thing happens.

From their website:

The simplicity of KEVA Planks means they not only complement any decor, they also complement all manner of interests, ages, abilities, time, and space. I'm not saying we've created a silver bullet, but KEVA planks come pretty close. Every person in your family can play together and have equally as much fun. KEVA planks engage your school-age children in stealth learning, strengthening their will-power and independence, as well as an understanding of physics, design, art, and engineering. Your younger kids practice fine motor control. Grandparents aren't relegated to watching on the sidelines. Young adults have an activity to chat over.

KEVA planks give you hours of quiet creativity or a crowd-pleasing group activity. We are delighted to offer hours of fun for whatever crowd crosses your threshold.

This was the kiddos first time with them and they were all so

engaged. It was simple...the students were told to just try these out.

 I can't wait until we have the opportunity to learn

how to use these simple wooden planks to create something

special, in January. The lessons will not stifle

their creativity, just focus on how to get the planks

to do what we want them to do.

Here are the simple bits and pieces that each student started off with on Friday.

These 'fun' activities are always so much more.

This is the time that the students are really working on

their fine motor skills.  These tasks help the muscles in

the hands do what the messages from the brain are

telling them to do.  Puzzle building, finger painting,

wringing out a dish cloth, zipping up a coat, pulling on the 

boots....these are things we must

have our children do.  Yes it is quicker and easier

for us to do them instead of waiting for the child, but

without this important practise, how will they

become confident and independent?

Once the houses were 'built', the Littles had the chance

to plan out their decorating.  They knew which

candies they were going to put where.

The look of success..

and the feeling of confidence because each

Little could honestly say "I did this by myself"!

Did you hear about the Big Bad Blow Dryer?

COVID Rules...no visitors in the school.

How are we going to test out the houses we built

if the Big Bad Wolf can't huff and puff?

We invited the Big Bad Blowdryer instead!

Our problem to solve in our science Building unit

was to build a house of straw, a house of sticks, and

a house of bricks.  The students paired up,

planned and then executed that plan using

materials we could find such as yellow strips of paper,

wooden coffee stir sticks and lego bricks.

Most chose glue as the fastener.

The pairs of students got to share their building ideas

and their predictions about whether the BBB would

blow the house over the line, into the next half of the table

or off the table.

Their favourite by far was the one that blew right off the table

(and I managed to capture the moment for you to see!)

The students and I discussed our thoughts, about

why the houses moved or didn't move and how

we could change the building to make the house

not move.  Lots of talking and thinking!

That's how to solve a problem!

The project was a success!

Oh What Fun It Is to Learn in a Grade One Class Today! Hey!

Each teacher was asked to decorate their classroom door

for the season.  Here's ours...

Since we can't move about the school to use different classrooms,

and we were painting a special Christmas picture, which was

drying on our desks, we got to do some work on the floor!

That doesn't happen very often!

\

Our science unit is about Building Things and we worked in pairs

to plan and then build one of the Three Little Pigs houses BUT we

have the challenge to make our houses better than the pigs' houses were.

Tomorrow the Big Bad Blowdryer is coming into class and he

will try to blow our houses away!

We are hearing many, many versions of the 

Gingerbread Man story.  Did you know that in one

version, the Gingerbread Man is not eaten by the fox?

We got to eat a Gingerbread Man today but we had

to keep track of which part of the cooky we ate

first, second, third and fourth.

We are using that information to make a graph,

and create a book.

We all agreed that the cookies were delicious!

Really...they are enjoying this activity!

For the first time, the students got to use a set of headphones

and listen to a Christmas story.  The students went to our Google Classroom

and chose the topic NEONS.  The books on the shelves in the picture

were all wonderful and each student could choose which story or two they wanted

to hear.

Thank you parents for helping your kiddos find something to share that showed our classmates

some group that the child belongs to.  The kiddos loved the activity and were proud to answer questions.

The 50th day of school!

Okay, I admit it...this one day of the school year, I was quite lax on

the protocols surrounding 2 metres apart, mask wearing and such,

but with fingers crossed, I just wanted us to have a little fun!

It's been a tough 49 days until now and kids just need something

to remember like:

being such 'cool' cats, that they all needed to slick back their

hair for this photo,

and just looking their very best in their twirly skirts, and pony tails

(and even lipstick!)

Sometimes the best learning happens, when you don't even know 

you are learning!  That's why teachers add this element of 'fun'

into the long school year.  They are going to remember this

day more than most others!

Who could forget the day the teacher made

root beer floats for each child?

Little did they know that there was a science

lesson, some math and writing involved with

those delicious slurps!

It was good to the last drop!

I never even got to hand out the spoons!

Look at the famous 'twist'

and we all learned how to 'hand jive' too!

Each student got to invite a friend to go for a ride in a pink Cadillac!

Bubblegum in school?

Yep...if it means we learn how to follow the

steps to make it work!

We also learned that it is true that

'practice makes perfect'!

Here's the proof to all we learned!

The students wrote out the three steps to how to make 

root beer floats, and the three steps to blowing a bubble.

No complaints either...all the learning that happened

makes me extra happy!

The learning continues!

In the Spring, when schools weren't open, I spent more time than I wanted to on

Google Meets and Zoom calls.  They have followed me into this school year!

Here is how the students were presented with their virtual field trip on Monday.

The man in the corner of the SMARTBoard was our presenter and he was

explaining how bees work and live together.  The connection was to how people 

sometimes live together in apartment buildings.  

Here are the diligent busy little beavers (yep, we talked about their homes too!)

trying to put together the little wooden houses.  They look easy enough,

but little students cannot always find which way is up!

Just when the sides are connected to the foundation,

the students are then to add the fronts and backs.

It was an exercise in patience and 'try, try again'

or 'wait, I'll be right there'

In the end, all the houses were constructed!

The little architects drew up a plan (blueprint) on how they wanted

their yard to look.  Once the plan was finished, the students (OOPS! architects)

became  builders and they added those details onto the box bottom which

became the yard.  They added colour, along with the smaller crafted items

which included 2 bushes, a teeter tooter, a picnic bench and 6 walkway stones.

Each one was the students' own creation.

In the end, each and every one was well done

and the students were very proud!

The students are working very hard on being able to 'stretch the sounds'

in words.  In table pairs, the students were playing a game to work on

CVC words (that stands for consonant-vowel-consonant)

Examples would be: pot, put, hat, bit and cut

I try to get the students to work on some type of 'Hands on' activity every

3 or 4 days.  If I can't sanitize the items (I can spray the dice and markers),

then I have to let them sit for 72 hours before they can be used again.

If you would have told me that I would have Grade One students logging 

into Chrome books and finding Google Classroom independently in November,

I would NEVER have believed you.  Thank you for assisting your

child with knowing how to find the letters and numbers on the keyboards.

It's not without hassle and I will need to colour the grey again in December (ha! ha!)

but they are quite proficient with the process.  Everyone can log in and almost all

can get to our Google Classroom.  Four students now have a computer mouse (purchased

through PowerSchool) and I think they liked using them today for the first time.

Right now, I am dedicating 4 class periods a week to using the Chrome books.

You know what they say "Practice makes perfect!"

Guess what tomorrow is!